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Rosh Hodesh Sivan | ראש חודש סיון
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Welcoming Sivan
As we welcome the new Hebrew month of Sivan, we invite you to read, listen, and share the words of Torah in this newsletter—bringing your lives to Torah and Torah to your lives. We again thank Nireh Or Instagram Project founders Rabbi Hayley Goldstein`19 and Lizzie Sivitz for their words and artwork.
In the Book of Formation, an early Kabbalistic text, each month is assigned a letter of the aleph-bet. This new month of Sivan’s letter is the letter Zayin, which is embellished with a crown. This crown, explains the Kabbalists, represents the crown given to the Israelite people at Mount Sinai, which we celebrate with the holiday of Shavuot at the beginning of this month. In typical rabbinic playfulness, the Kabbalists teach that the numerical value of the word keter, crown, is 620, the number of letters in the Ten Commandments. This Sivan, may we be blessed to feel our crown, knowing that we belong to the Torah and she belongs to us.
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Finding our way in the desert of uncertainty
Parashat Bamidbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20) and Shavuot
By Tyler Dratch, Hebrew College rabbinical student
We are approaching the holiday of Shavuot, yet another Jewish festival in which we work hard to find our way, amongst the limits of our current world. So much of Jewish life these last many months has felt like wandering in a desert. We wish to journey forward, but there is no road showing us the correct way. We move in one direction, and then, with new health data or technical difficulties, we lose our sense of direction all together. It is difficult to become close to each other and to God when we keep losing our way.
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Why We Say "70 Faces of Torah"
The ancient rabbinic expression “70 Faces (or Facets) of Torah” is a simultaneous call for epistemological humility and interpretive creativity. It is a reminder that only the Divine possesses ultimate truth and that as finite seekers, we need the contributions of many distinct voices. Torah can be compared to a precious gem that refracts differently based on one’s perspective. We, must, therefore, “turn it and turn it” in the company of passionate and compassionate teachers, students, and peers, who each bring their own unique gifts—“faces”—to the ongoing search for light and life.
By Rabbi Or Rose (above), Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College & Founding Editor of the Hebrew College Seventy Faces of Torah blog
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This video was created in honor of the Jewish Festival of Shavuot in which the Book of Ruth is traditionally read. The story connects Ruth's journey of conversion and accepting of Torah with the Jewish people's acceptance of Torah. It reminds us that the acceptance of Torah is a righteous act of love and that Ruth's relationships are to remind us of our relationship with HaShem. These lyrics are English translations of lines found throughout the story of Ruth—they bounce from character to character and from subject to subject, but together tell a larger story of seeking, cleaving, and ultimately loving. Watch now.
All art was created in one take. Calligraphy, sofrut and watercolor performed by Rachel Jackson: binahdesign.com. Music by Jackson Vance Mercer: jacksonmercer.com.
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Torah For This Moment
We invite you to visit our On Torah page to read, watch and listen to the words of Torah on holidays, music, social justice, spirituality and more that are emerging from our students, faculty, and alumni. We hope they inspire you to draw more deeply on the well of Torah in your own life.
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Faith — Here & Now: An Interreligious Exploration
A Program of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning
and Leadership at Hebrew College
May 11, 19 and/or 25 | 1-2 p.m. EST | Free
Learn more & registerMoving On and Holding On
Breath Lab Workshop with Rabbi Ebn Leader
May 27 | 4-5:30 p.m. EST | Free
Learn more and register
Hebrew College Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston (JTFGB)
Grant Ceremony
June 2 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. EST
Learn more
Commencement Ceremony (On Zoom)
June 6 | Noon EST
Learn more
Rabbinical and Cantorial Ordination Ceremonies (Livestreamed)
June 6 | Cantorial 1:15 p.m. EST | Rabbinical 3 p.m. EST
Learn more
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Hebrew College is an innovative national institute for Jewish learning and leadership based in Newton, Massachusetts. We are dedicated to Jewish literacy, creativity, and community, and a world of dignity and compassion for all. Our students are future rabbis, cantors, and educators, and people at every stage of life who love to learn. Together, we are infusing Jewish life with substance, spirit, beauty, imagination, and a sense of purpose. Please join us and support our work with a tax-deductible gift.
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